United States Politics Thread 47

[Raphael]

David Allen Green has two interesting posts on "one-way constitutionalism" https://davidallengreen.com/2025/10/the ... stitution/ and the "gaming" of the constitution https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/idea ... nstitution.

[Mornche Geddick]

The rise is far right came in the 2010s. The rise in smartphones also did. Both are linked to increased anxiety. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy082dn7rkqo https://www.jeantwenge.com/igen-book-by-dr-jean-twenge/. Also, smartphones are literally making people dumber as in the Reverse Flynn Effect. https://calnewport.com/on-the-reverse-flynn-effect/

No, I don't think it's smartphones. The rise of the far right started quite some time before smartphones. Depending on the country you can see signs of it as early as the 80s.

In the US, to give just one example, Ann Coulter was pretty Trump-ish, as early as the late 90s, early 2000s.

I'm usually very skeptical about "this newfangled technology is ruining everything"-speeches, so I don't like to say this, but MacAnDàil might have a point. Whatever preliminaries there were, the rise of the fascists became a really big global thing in the 2010s.

About the correlation between smartphones, anxiety and stupidity, I can pretty well guess that if you are burning mental resources on worries, you have less for thinking. So if smartphones cause, or inflame anxiety, then....

[Raphael]

About the correlation between smartphones, anxiety and stupidity, I can pretty well guess that if you are burning mental resources on worries, you have less for thinking. So if smartphones cause, or inflame anxiety, then....

That's a good point, but then again, people who have not turned fascist over the course of the last 15 years are probably, on average, at least as anxious and worried as people who have.

[Ares Land]

I thought about it some more, and maybe there's something about smartphones.

There is a bad combination between instant worrying as push notifications and content that would never air on television that's probably doing nothing good.

I don't know what role anxiety plays -- though it seems a lot of politics revolves around worrying -- either about the far right and global warming, or about the left and immigration.

[alice]

Not sure how to embed this, but it's pertinent:

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cmvc2f ... _src=embed

[Raphael]

Not sure how to embed this, but it's pertinent:

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cmvc2f ... _src=embed

Fascinating how the process of donating money to a candidate and some political causes becomes a "bombshell" when people whom right-wingers don't like do it.

Err, Donald, just in case you didn't notice, there's hardly ever a major election campaign in your country that doesn't involve various rich people sending a lot of money to various candidates. That's not the way it should be, of course, but it's your side of the political divide that stands in the way of doing anything about it.

Coming soon: "Zohran Mamdani is running ADVERTISEMENTS in an attempt to convince people to vote for him!!!!! Will his sinister manipulative machinations never end????!??!???!!"

[bradrn]

Not sure how to embed this, but it's pertinent:

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cmvc2f ... _src=embed

I’ll admit that the caption gave me a good chuckle.

[Raphael]

Resume nuclear testing? That surprised even me.

[bradrn]

Resume nuclear testing? That surprised even me.

Yep.

[Lērisama]

Resume nuclear testing? That surprised even me.

Where is this? I couldn't see it.

[Raphael]

Resume nuclear testing? That surprised even me.

Where is this? I couldn't see it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzq2p0yk4o

[Lērisama]

Resume nuclear testing? That surprised even me.

Where is this? I couldn't see it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzq2p0yk4o

Ah, I see. I assumed it was related to the hysterical Zohran Mamdani comments and got confused.

[MacAnDàil]

The rise is far right came in the 2010s. The rise in smartphones also did. Both are linked to increased anxiety. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy082dn7rkqo https://www.jeantwenge.com/igen-book-by-dr-jean-twenge/. Also, smartphones are literally making people dumber as in the Reverse Flynn Effect. https://calnewport.com/on-the-reverse-flynn-effect/

This is just the reactionary view. Expanding the public square doesn't ennoble the public; it cheapens the public square. Talk radio went through a similar cycle: the market discovered that the masses wanted paranoid, corrosive moron-right dreck. Eventually the government stepped in to regulate it, in a less than entirely principled manner which nonetheless has met with historians' applause. Does anyone really mind that the sitting president of the United States extraconstitutionally forced a popular talk radio host off the air? Well, the radio host was Charles Coughlin, who thought Hitler was a swell guy... so the masses must be ruled!

I am not sure to what extent this is ironic. Do you mean that you think that it was inappropriate for Coughlin's program to be taken off air because you see that as restricted freedom of speech? And that similar actions ought to be avoided? Or something else?

[bradrn]

The rise is far right came in the 2010s. The rise in smartphones also did. Both are linked to increased anxiety. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy082dn7rkqo https://www.jeantwenge.com/igen-book-by-dr-jean-twenge/. Also, smartphones are literally making people dumber as in the Reverse Flynn Effect. https://calnewport.com/on-the-reverse-flynn-effect/

This is just the reactionary view. Expanding the public square doesn't ennoble the public; it cheapens the public square. Talk radio went through a similar cycle: the market discovered that the masses wanted paranoid, corrosive moron-right dreck. Eventually the government stepped in to regulate it, in a less than entirely principled manner which nonetheless has met with historians' applause. Does anyone really mind that the sitting president of the United States extraconstitutionally forced a popular talk radio host off the air? Well, the radio host was Charles Coughlin, who thought Hitler was a swell guy... so the masses must be ruled!

I am not sure to what extent this is ironic. Do you mean that you think that it was inappropriate for Coughlin's program to be taken off air because you see that as restricted freedom of speech? And that similar actions ought to be avoided? Or something else?

I think he’s considering it hypocrisy that people complained about Jimmy Kimmel’s show being suspended, but that they presumably wouldn’t have problems with Coughlin having been taken off air.

[Nortaneous]

The rise is far right came in the 2010s. The rise in smartphones also did. Both are linked to increased anxiety. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy082dn7rkqo https://www.jeantwenge.com/igen-book-by-dr-jean-twenge/. Also, smartphones are literally making people dumber as in the Reverse Flynn Effect. https://calnewport.com/on-the-reverse-flynn-effect/

This is just the reactionary view. Expanding the public square doesn't ennoble the public; it cheapens the public square. Talk radio went through a similar cycle: the market discovered that the masses wanted paranoid, corrosive moron-right dreck. Eventually the government stepped in to regulate it, in a less than entirely principled manner which nonetheless has met with historians' applause. Does anyone really mind that the sitting president of the United States extraconstitutionally forced a popular talk radio host off the air? Well, the radio host was Charles Coughlin, who thought Hitler was a swell guy... so the masses must be ruled!

I am not sure to what extent this is ironic. Do you mean that you think that it was inappropriate for Coughlin's program to be taken off air because you see that as restricted freedom of speech? And that similar actions ought to be avoided? Or something else?

I think it was obviously illiberal, but not inappropriate.

I think he’s considering it hypocrisy that people complained about Jimmy Kimmel’s show being suspended, but that they presumably wouldn’t have problems with Coughlin having been taken off air.

I've never paid attention to Jimmy Kimmel in my life, but on a surface-level reading, his suspension looks inappropriate. If you're going to make an example of someone, it should be a good example.

[rotting bones]

Mamdani just won. I really hope he doesn't make people think socialism is impossible by failing to make changes on a structural level. I also hope he is able to effectively curb antisemitic "leftists".

[Ares Land]

That's great news for New Yorkers anyway, and perhaps a hopeful sign.

[lëtzeshark]

Not just Zohran Mamdani, but other possibly good news for Democrats: Abigail Spanberger is predicted to have won the Virgin(ia) gubernatorial election (flipping to the Democrats) by about 15%, along with a reinforced majority for Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates (the lower house of the legislature), going from 51 to 64 seats out of 100; and Mikie Sherill was called to have won the New Jersey gubernatorial race by about 13%. Both of these are rather unusual: NJ often flips control of the governor's office, while the margins in Virginia are rarely that large (last time was in 2009).

More: show

Notably, Spanberger will be Virginia's first female governor (while her opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears, would also have been), and Sherill will be New Jersey's second.

[rotting bones]

Unlike Spanberger, Mamdani is an outspoken member of America's Democratic Socialist movement. A bigger factor is probably that he's non-white. The conservatives are really losing their minds. They are saying he's a Communist who will hunt down Jews in the streets while hiding behind Islamophobia as an excuse. Their projections are terrifying. This is what they wish they could do to us.

[zompist]

Someone on Bluesky had a handy list of Democratic wins. It was a little sparse on details so I expanded it a bit.

CA: Prop 50 wins, countering Texas gerrymander
VA: Dems flip governor (Abigail Spannberger, 56-43), lt. governor (55-45), attorney general (53-47); vastly expand legislative control
NY: Zohran Mamdani wins a NYC mayor (50-42)
NJ: Dems keep governorship (Mikie Sherrill, 56-43) and gain a legislative supermajority
PA: 3 Dem Supreme Court justices retained, preserving their 5-2 majority
ME: Rep attempt to limit mail-in voting fails
GA: Two Dems seated on public utility board: first statewide office win since 2006
MS: Dems flip two seats, ending Rep supermajority
NY: Alvin Bragg reelected as district attorney
PA: Larry Krasner reelected as district attorney
CO: Free school meals approved (58%)
OH: Dem Aftab Pureval reelected as mayor (78-22), defeating JD Vance's brother
PA: Dems flip Bucks Cty. sheriff (55-44), and oust all Reps from school boards-- the county went for Trump last year
NC: Charlotte approves a transit tax increase
NY: Dems flip NY's Onondaga & Dutchess counties, a first in decades, & PA's Luzerne County
WA: Dems flip Seattle city attorney (63-37)